Abstract

Background and purpose

Primary Medical Care is first contact medical care concerned with the total health care of the individual and family in their community. Clinical encounter needs research to practice evidence based medicine. The ultimate purpose of primary care health workers is to provide high-quality patient care. There is a need for all health care providers to appreciate the value of research in their everyday practice and make healthcare efficient and cost effective. The purpose of this study was to identify attitude and barrier towards research amongst primary care health workers and to explore self-reported experience of research.

Methods

A cross sectional study conducted in primary health care set up in North Batinah region Oman. Data was collected with self-filled questionnaire incorporating important barriers and attitudes in research. Data was analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20.0. Data was expressed in frequencies and percentages for questionnaire responses. Mann-Whitney test was used to compare differences between groups.

Results

A total of 557 participants were enrolled in which 425 were from the Oman and 132 were non Omani with a mean age of 33.13 ± 6.16 years and age range of 20-61 years. Among all 23.2% (129) were males and 76.8% (428) were females More than half of the participants were nurses (54.9%) and rest were physicians (19.3%), pharmacist (6.6%), and lab and radiology technicians (16.7). Responses of male participants were not significantly different (p=0.153) to the females regarding perceived value of research. However, significant difference (p=0.001) was observed regarding barrier of research. 14.9% were currently involved in the research. Nearly one third of participants feel that research allotted time (31.8%), financial support (32.3%) and financial incentives (30.3%) are the main barriers of research. Participants who had undergraduate (p=0.007) and postgraduate (p=0.001) research training did differ significantly in their response about self-experience of research and barrier of research.

Conclusion

Majority participants were currently not involved in research and a very small proportion of them received any training. Research allotted time, financial support and financial incentives are the main barriers of research. Research output may improve if identified barriers are rectified. Further studies are recommended in this field.